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Electrode architecture of carbon-coated silicon nanowires through magnesiothermic reduction for lithium-ion batteries

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Abstract

Carbon-coated silicon nanowires (C-Si NWs) were prepared as anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The C-Si NWs were synthesized using a simple and effective fabrication strategy via magnesiothermic reduction. The synthesis sequence of carbon coating before the chemical etching of the reduced Si NWs/MgO composite was found to be critical for improved battery performance. In addition, carbon coating was found to help to stabilize the solid electrolyte interphase layer during battery cycling, which is important to realize the benefits of Si-based LIBs. This synthesis method provides an efficient route to synthesizing high-performance Si electrodes via magnesiothermic reduction.

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Dr. Ying Li for supporting chemical treatment facilities and Daebaek, LLC. for silica nano-wires supply for this research. The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of the Texas A&M Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) for SEM. Partial funding for this research was provided by the Meinhard H. Kotzebue ‘14 Professorship endowment in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-3123, USA

    Young Gyu Nam, Mohammad Humood, Haejune Kim & Andreas A. Polycarpou

Authors
  1. Young Gyu Nam
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  2. Mohammad Humood
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  3. Haejune Kim
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  4. Andreas A. Polycarpou
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andreas A. Polycarpou.

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The supplementary material for this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2017.106

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Nam, Y.G., Humood, M., Kim, H. et al. Electrode architecture of carbon-coated silicon nanowires through magnesiothermic reduction for lithium-ion batteries. MRS Communications 7, 867–872 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2017.106

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2017.106

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